Il Mascalzone (The
Scoundrel)
(The
setting: a quiet street on a busy day in 19th-century Florence)
(Enter:
Two Servants)
Servant
1: <Our master is a scoundrel!>
Servant
2: <And his next target is the maiden living next door!>
Servant: <How
his shenanigans brighten our days!>
(Exit:
Two Servants. Enter: The Scoundrel)
The
Scoundrel: <Aria! My life is very
sad because I have no one I can really talk to.>
(Enter:
The Maiden)
The
Maiden: <Aria! I spend my days
marking time until I get married.>
The
Scoundrel: <I can solve that problem
for you.>
(Enter:
The Maiden’s Male Relative)
The
Maiden’s Male Relative: <Halt, The Scoundrel! You will not denigrate my female relative into a notch on your disgusting
belt!>
The
Scoundrel: <Flee!>
(Townspeople
materialize from the wings; Servant 1
picks up The Scoundrel in a car and they drive off)
The
Maiden’s Male Relative: <What was that demon horseless carriage?>
Townspeople:
<Demon horseless carriage!>
The
Maiden: <I must plot how to preserve my honor!>
(Enter:
Servant 2 in disguise as a child)
Servant 2:
<Allow me to assist you, wink, wink.>
Townspeople:
<What could possibly go wrong?>
(Intermission)
(The
setting: The same street with darker lighting)
(Enter:
The Scoundrel, grandly, through the automatic doors of his mansion)
The
Scoundrel: <Aria 2! I have scored
yet again.>
(Enter:
The Maiden, wearing rags)
The
Maiden: <I am a ruined wretch! How
did I let this happen to me between acts?>
The
Scoundrel: <Let me recount.>
(Puppeteers
enter and re-enact the sordid story in pantomime.
From the direction of the void that faces the characters (aka “The
Fourth Wall”) comes the shout: “What a dastard!”)
The
Maiden: <Tragic Aria! Now what will
I do with my life?>
(Enter:
The Foreigner)
The
Foreigner: <Now for something completely random – let me regale you with
stories from my native Japan.>
The
Scoundrel: <You’re not from Japan.>
The
Foreigner: <I never let that stop me.>
(Exit:
The Foreigner. Enter: The Maiden’s Male
Relative and the Two Servants)
The
Maiden’s Male Relative: <A plague on ye for corrupting my female
relative!>
The
Scoundrel: <Next time keep a better eye on her, honored elder.>
The
Maiden’s Male Relative: <Strike you!>
(He
strikes at The Scoundrel and misses. Servant 1 mortally strikes The Maiden’s
Male Relative; The Maiden mortally strikes Servant 1; Servant 2 mortally
strikes The Maiden; and The Scoundrel mortally strikes Servant 2 in order not
to be left out of the action)
Dying
Characters: (In four-part harmony) <Alas!> (They die)
The
Scoundrel: <Ah me, onto my next conquest!>
(Enter:
The Foreigner)
The
Foreigner: <Little does he know that this is the just the right cause to avenge that I
have been looking for all my life!> (He discards his disguise and reveals that
he is in law enforcement) <Halt!
Police! Your dastardly ways are
at an end!>
The
Scoundrel: <Alas! And woe.>
(Justice is
served, but too late for any of the good guys)
THE CURTAIN CRASHES
DOWN ON THE TABLEAU OF GLORIOUS DESPAIR
interesting take on opera.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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